It is highly desirable to detect insulation damage and conditions that lead to insulation damage on electrical conductors in many applications, for example, on aircraft. The detection and location of wire insulation wear may be used to prevent ground faults and electrical arcing which could result in loss of function of electrical systems, fire and catastrophic consequences for the aircraft if left unattended. Ground faults and arcing are difficult to detect because these condition often are intermittent and occur only during operational conditions. The only way to detect insulation and wiring damage that causes intermittent arcing is to have maintenance personnel manually inspect the wiring systems. However, often damaged wiring is hidden and not accessible for visual inspection. Manual inspection has a number of other drawbacks, including human error and inconsistency, accessibility, cost and infrequent inspection intervals and time required for inspection. Also, in many cases further damage of wiring systems is caused by these manual maintenance and inspection activities.
Recently, it has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,880 to Born et al (the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference) to detect chafing of a “conduit” (which may include coated electrical conductors) by means of a sensing element (medium). The sensing element is located such that damage (chaffing) occurs on the sensing element before the conduit. The sensing element described by Born et al may be a conductive wire, waveguide or fiber optical cable. The change in a signal propagated through the sensing element is used to measure chaffing of the conduit. The apparatus and method described by Born et al measures damage to the sensing element only and not the conduit. However, such a prior proposal necessarily depends on the damage to and actual severing of the sensing element. As such, this prior proposal assumes that damage only occurs on the sensing element prior to conduit damage and that the only mechanism is mechanical chaffing. It is known, however, that damage to electrical systems may be due to high temperature transients, tension, bending, pinch points and chemical contamination. The prior proposal does not provide for the detection of those conditions that may lead to damage of the conduit, but instead provides for detection only of actual chaffing damage to the sensor.
Furthermore, the Born et al technique requires that, once damage is detected and the sensing fiber is severed, the only way to restore sensor function is replacement of the sensor and conduit assembly. This is a cost prohibitive and time consuming response for a system intended to reduce maintenance time and cost. It is well know that intrusive wiring replacement activities are damaging to other collocated wiring elements and systems. Therefore, safety improvements associated with the prior Born et al proposal may be negated by increased sensor maintenance demands.
Prior art sensing methods and apparatus are not sensitive to many processes that cause wire damage. These prior art methods only detect chaffing damage to the sensing elements. Once damaged, restoration of function requires substantial time, effort and cost for system replacement and is a safety liability because of the potential for collateral damage to collocated systems.
An objective, optical fiber-based distributed sensor system having the ability to monitor the magnitude of physical, thermal and other environmental loadings on the wiring system that are conditions that lead to damage would be desirable. A further objective, optical fiber-based distributed sensor system that is capable of monitoring insulation wear or permanent damage to the wiring system would be desirable.
An objective, optical fiber-based distributed sensor system that can be used to continuously monitor the wiring system and provide both temporal and spatial resolution of the wiring system condition and damage would likewise be highly desirable. In this regard, it would be a desirable objective to have an optical fiber-based distributed sensor system that could monitor potentially damaging conditions and damage to the wiring system without loss of function of the sensing system. A desirable objective would also be the ability to detect and locate damaging conditions before permanent wiring system damage occurs and that can be corrected without loss of function of the optical fiber-based distributed sensor system. Another objective would be the detection and location of permanent wiring system damage that could be repaired without loss of function or replacement of the optical fiber-based distributed sensor system.
A fiber optic based sensor system which could quickly locate regions of excessive wear and/or regions where conditions are possible for excessive wear to occur would therefore be highly desirable. It is towards meeting such objectives and to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in wiring systems (e.g., individual wires, wire bundles, wire harnesses and the like) having integral fiber optic-based integrity sensors, and to systems and methods for detecting high temperature excursions and strains that can cause damage of a protective insulator coating on an electrical conductor. The present invention is also directed to systems and methods for locating permanent damage of insulators and protective coatings for electrical conductors. In especially preferred forms, the present invention is embodied in an optical fiber sensor in operative association with the wiring system, wherein the optical fiber sensor includes a plurality of Bragg gratings written into the fiber at spaced-apart locations along its axial length.
The fiber optic sensor used in the practice of the present invention may thus be employed to measure the strain and temperature of an electrical wire, wire bundle or harness assembly. The fiber optic sensor may be employed to detect and locate permanent changes in the state of strain of the wire, wire bundle, harness and electrical insulator coating. The optical fiber may be contained in a polymer sheath, coating, weave, tape wrap or simply co-located in a wire bundle or harness assembly. These physical and environmental loadings produce measurable strains in fiber optic sensors which include Bragg gratings written therein. The sensor may thus be operatively connected to circuitry which detects such permanent and transient strain and thermal loadings which may thereby be indicative of conditions that lead to damage or permanent damage to regions along the axial length of the electrical wiring system, wire bundle, harness or insulator coating.
Further, the fiber optic sensor used in the practice of the present invention may thus be employed to measure the residual stress in an electrical insulator coating of a metallic electrical conductor (e.g., an electrically conductive wire) wire bundle or wire harness. In this regard, electrical insulator coatings, typically formed of a polymeric material (e.g., polyolefin, polytetrafluoroethylene, fluorinated ethylene propylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene, polyimide or the like) produce measurable strains in fiber optic sensors which include Bragg gratings written therein. The sensor may thus be operatively connected to circuitry which detects such stress which may thereby be indicative of insulator coating wear regions along the axial length of the electrical wiring system, wire bundle or harness.
The magnitude of the compressive strain in the fiber optic sensor decreases as the coating is worn away. Measured strains in the Bragg grating may thus be used in accordance with the present invention so as to monitor the progression of the wear processes. In such embodiments, the optical fiber sensors could thereby function as wear sensors capable of being multiplexed using a number of known art techniques, including optical frequency domain reflectometry.
The complete sensor system may therefore include multiple optical sensor fibers that are functionalized to detect or have varying sensitivities to residual insulation stress, tensile stress, bending stress, temperature and/or magnetic field strength. A fiber optic sensor with minimal or no adhesion to the insulating material can be used to facilitate thermal compensation. Isolation of such second sensor from residual insulation stress will therefore make it primarily responsive to temperature conditions. Locating fibers at various circumferential positions about the axis of the wiring system enhances the detection of tensile, bending and pinching loads. Coatings of varying coefficients of thermal expansion may be used to tailor the temperature response of the fiber optic sensor.
Furthermore, the optical fiber sensors may be functionalized so as to be responsive to magnetic field strength. Magnetic sensitivity is achieved by adhering coatings that contain magnetostrictive particles to the optical fiber sensors. A system comprised of magnetostrictive particles and organic binder that may be employed in the practice of the present invention is more fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,284 to Cedell et al, the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference. Such magnetostrictive materials may thus be employed as a coating in the context of the present invention so that strain is induced when subjected to a magnetic field. Such induced strain may thus be detected by the fiber optic condition sensors employed in the present invention.
Systems which employ the present invention may therefore find particular utility as an aircraft condition sensor which could be monitored continuously on-board and/or monitored periodically during maintenance inspections by ground maintenance personnel.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear to those skilled in this art after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.